Friday, May 9

Part 3 - Steps to Spring Ready Skin

Part 3 - Spring Skin Prep

Taking inventory of your body after it has been
tucked away and bundled up all Winter long, can be an eye-opening
experience. Once we acknowledge our dry - flaky - pale skin, unattended
body hair and callused feet - baring our limbs and getting
ready for our skin revealing wardrobe, can feel overwhelming. Take a
few simple steps and you can enjoy silky, smooth and radiant skin,
just in time for your warm weather reveal.

Key steps to Spring ready skin

Body
- Skin care is about more than just your face. It is essential that
you provide your body's skin some extra TLC. Just like your face, your
body will benefit from three essential steps:

Exfoliation
- Remove the oldest dead skin cells on the skin's outermost surface.
Exfoliating once or twice a week is usually enough to achieve improved
texture and smoother skin; however, people with oily skin should
exfoliate more often than those with dry skin.

Moisturizing
- Apply skin nourishing emollients to the external layers of the
skin, to aid the skin in feeling softer and more pliable. This
helps to increase the skin's moisture content by reducing evaporation.
Moisturize daily, preferably after bathing (while skin is still
damp) to maximize moisture in the skin.

Protection - Limit sun exposure. Wear a sunscreen and avoid
being in the sun through the peak-damage times (usually 10 a.m. until 4
p.m. in the northern hemisphere). Using skin care products that offer
ultraviolet protection is one of the best ways to help keep your skin
looking and feeling youthful and fresh. Use sunscreen SPF 30+ every day
and reapply regularly whenever you're outdoors for extended periods.
You can also cover skin by wearing long-sleeved shirts, pants, and
wide-brimmed hats, when outdoors.

Solutions to common

Spring skin challenges

Do you have red or white bumps on your arms, legs or buttocks that look similar to goose bumps? This can be due to keratosis pilaris,
a genetic condition that causes extra skin cells to build up around
individual hair follicles, giving you a bumpy texture and a polka-dotted
appearance.

Tip: Application of a skin
nourishing daily moisturizer can help to soften the bumps and use of an
exfoliating body scrub or polish when bathing (1-2 times per week) can
help to reduce the bumps even more. (Purple EssentialsWhipped Body Creme and Body Scrubs help to moisturize and exfoliate with pure and simple, skin nourishing ingredients).

Do your knees and elbows resemble a dry, ashy desert area?
Many people suffer from dry, ashy skin on their limb joints. It can
be helped with exfoliation and deep moisturizing. Use an exfoliating
scrub 1-2 times per week, when bathing, and follow with a deep
moisturizer.

Tip: Before going to bed at night, apply a nourishing body butter (Purple Essentials Mango Body Butter
works well) to the effected areas. Cut the toe area off of an old
(clean) cotton sock - shimmy the remaining band of the sock over the
body buttered area, to keep the Body Butter on your skin and off of your
clothes and sheets. Remove in the morning.

Do your feet make that "scratchy noise" when they slide against the sheets?
Before you break out the sandals, you may want to book yourself a
pedicure or do one at home. Pay close attention to your heels and
toes. Are they dry, callused, even cracked? Once again, the key to
getting them silky-smooth, is exfoliating and moisturizing.

Tip:
Add 3 cups of warm milk and one cup of honey to a large basin, stir
until blended and soak your feet for 25 minutes, massaging the liquid
into your skin.

Use a handful of a sea salt based body scrub to
exfoliate dead, dry skin off of the feet. Rinse with warm water and
gently push cuticles back to the nail bed with the back of your thumb
nail, and pat dry. For a deeply moisturizing treatment apply a layer of
thick body cream or body butter to feet and cover with clean, cotton
socks, sleep and remove in the morning. (works well for hands too).

Have you neglected your body hair for weeks, even months, through the Winter? It might be time for substantial de-fuzzing of areas that will soon see the sun.

Tip: Plan to do a thorough exfoliation 2 days prior
to having any hair removal treatments performed (ie. waxing, sugaring
etc). Your aim is to loosen and remove dead skin cells, which will
help to make hair removal easier, by lifting small hairs and removing
dry skin. A great place to visit for de-fuzzing (sugaring or waxing) Solace Esthetics (Stacia Power).

Interesting fact:
hair follicles begin to form during the tenth week of pregnancy when
the fetus is about the size of a peanut. By week 22, there are
approximately five million hair follicles all over the body, and not a
single additional follicle will ever be produced from that point
forward.

Looking a little pale? A faux-tan can warm up your pasty colour.

Tip: Be sure to exfoliate 2 days prior to faux-tanning,
to achieve even coverage, colour and avoid streaks. You can also use a
natural bronzer and mineral makeup to create a sun-kissed glow. For an
all natural, organic sunless spray tanning session. See Jada Lombard
at The Green Bath & Beauty Company. *Remember that you will still need to protect your golden skin with SPF 30+.

In preparing your skin for those balmy Spring and Summer days ahead, remember the key steps are to;

About Me

Welcome to my blog. I am a long-time aromatherapist, esthetician, instructor, natural cosmetic chef and entrepreneur. Wife to a wonderful man and mother of 2 amazing young men. Someone with a passion and gift for creating fresh & natural products. I believe things happen for a reason. I am motivated by a desire to "do good", to be creative and to appreciate pure-joy moments. Pure & simple – this is a blog about the journey of Purple Essentials, along with a mix of things that inspire me. Thank you for stopping by :) Come back soon...